Zitat: Abraham Lincoln übers “All men are created equal” (I)

I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor or degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy.

So der spätere Präsident Abraham Lincoln am 24. August 1855 in einem Brief an Joshua Speed. Bei dem am Anfang erwähnten Know-Nothing handelt es sich um Mitglieder der “Know-Nothing”-Partei, die in den 1850ern einigermaßen populär war und sich vor allem durch eine radikale Einschränkung der Einwanderung in die Vereinigten Staaten profilierte — und durch Hetze gegen alles Fremde, vornehmlich gegen Katholiken.

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